The first Australian
Ring cycle on CD – and indeed
on any carrier – is being issued at
a steady pace. It was recorded during
live performances at the Adelaide Festival
Theatre during four busy weeks at the
end of 2004 and attracted a lot of attention
for the stunning SACD Surround Sound.
The listener is transported to the recording
venue, the atmosphere fully caught and
the orchestra’s magnificent playing
faithfully reproduced in a well balanced
production that gives the orchestra
its full due while practically never
swamping the voices. Stage movements
sometimes inevitably upset the balance
but on the whole it presents a well
integrated sound-picture. More disturbing
are the stage noises, atmospheric and
necessary no doubt in some of the scenes,
such as the forging of Notung, where
the beats of the hammer are composed
into the score. In some instances these
are irritating when as a listener one
can’t figure out what is going on. I
am not going to make heavy weather of
this since the advantages of live recordings
often outweigh the disadvantages, creating
a real feeling of the theatre.

Reviewing the first
two instalments I praised the conducting
of Asher Fisch as well as the superlative
playing and I don’t withdraw a syllable
of this concerning Siegfried either.
It is true that he is sometimes a fraction
slow – lax is too strong a word – at
least in comparison with Lothar Zagrosek’s
recording for Naxos which I reviewed
recently and found much to my taste.
There is compensation galore, however,
not least in his handling of rhythms
and the forward drive in key passages.
Notung! Notung! Neidliches Schwert!
(CD1 tr. 20), one of the central scenes,
is for instance measured in tempo but
the rugged rhythm, unbending as the
rock, depicts the force and the overpowering
determination of young Siegfried. The
prelude to act two (CD2 tr. 1), dark
and brooding, pictures the still sleeping
Fafner. The wonderful high strings opening
CD4 and leading over to Brünnhilde’s
Heil dir, Sonne! has the right
magical sheen and the jubilant final
bars of the opera functions as a glowing
exclamation mark. Instrumental solos
are well handled and I must mention
the hilariously out-of-tune English
horn in act two, deputizing for Siegfried’s
reed pipe and the notoriously difficult
French horn solo, with not a hint of
a fluff.

As for the singing
I am happy to report that the high quality
of Die Walküre is in the
main retained here. Readers with good
memory may recall that I wasn’t quite
as enthusiastic about Das Rheingold,
but here most is satisfactory. Richard
Greager’s Mime has a strong personality,
expressive, pointing his words, sometimes
even verging on caricature. This Mime
is however a really nasty character
and without ever having seen him one
gets a vivid picture of the dwarf. The
supreme Mime of recent times, Graham
Clarke, for both Barenboim and Haenchen,
may have a more attractive voice but
Greager runs him close. His brother
Alberich is portrayed as uncommonly
neurotic and high-strung by John Wegner
and the dialogue between the brothers
in act 2 (CD2 tr. 15) is a really heated
affair.

David Hibbard’s Fafner
is imposingly black and sepulchral and
Shu-Cheen Yu is actually the loveliest
Woodbird I have heard: lively and bright
and warbling. At the other end of the
female spectrum Liane Keegan is an excellent
Erda, pouring out steady tone. I have
admired John Bröchler’s Wotan both
in the Haenchen DVD Ring and in the
earlier instalments in the present one.
He can be over-emphatic at times and
as Der Wanderer he tends to shout and
bark at climaxes, pressing his voice
beyond its natural limitations. At the
same time he has authority and there
is some bloom to his tone and very little
of the wobble many Wotans and Wanderers
produce.

Lisa Gasteen was Brünnhilde
also on the Zagrosek Siegfried
and do I detect a slight deterioration
in voice quality here? There may be
a fraction more wear on the tone and
hasn’t the vibrato at forte and above
widened ever so little? Against that
can be set unflinching power and also
a great deal of sensitive warm-hearted
soft singing – just try Ewig war
ich, ewig bin ich (CD4 tr. 4).

The find, for me at
least, is Gary Rideout as Siegfried.
Here is that rarity: a basically lyric
tenor, light-toned and able to sing
honeyed beautiful cantilena – not the
first thing one expects from a Siegfried!
At his first entrance his tone is almost
indistinguishable from Mime, but just
listen to CD1 tr. 8, where he sings
Da sah ich denn auch mein eigen Bild
so beautifully and again on tr. 18,
ca 2:00, Sonderlich seltsam muss
das sein! This is youthful lyric
singing of the highest order. Add to
this power enough to make something
out of Notung! Notung! (tr. 20),
admirably steady, sonorous and with
a romantic timbre that is very appealing.
It isn’t that larger-than-life baritonal
voice of Melchior but he reminds me
a little of Helge Brilioth, Karajan’s
choice for Siegfried in his Götterdämmerung
recording. I heard him in Siegfried
in Stockholm 35 years ago and he also
compensated for any possible lack of
heft with elegance, steadiness and youthfulness.
In the long final scene, with the newly
awakened Brünnhilde, he delivers
heroic singing with warmth and beauty,
clearly inspired by the soprano. It
isn’t a flawless performance but so
much is admirable.

The presentation is
first class. The four discs come in
a 160-page hardback book with full libretto
and English translation (Andrew Porter’s
from 1976), synopsis, an essay on the
work and artist biographies. The layout
is practical: acts 1 and 2 cover one
CD each while the third act is a few
minutes too long to be squeezed in on
one disc; therefore the last 33 minutes,
starting at Brünnhilde’s Heil
dir, Sonne, are on the fourth disc.

I still retain my admiration
for the Zagrosek set but this Melba
recording is at least on a par with
the Naxos, has a magnificent Fafner,
a splendid Mime and Gary Rideout as
the most lyrical Siegfried I have heard
– at least since Brilioth. Better than
any is the Barenboim set from Bayreuth,
available both on CD and DVD, with Jerusalem,
Tomlinson, Clarke and Anne Evans.

The bottom line still
reads: With much inspired playing and
singing and superb SACD sound this is
a set that can be warmly recommended.
Those who have already acquired the
first two instalments need not hesitate.

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